Each year untold numbers of photographs are developed, looked at and stuffed in a drawer or cupboard. The photographer usually has good intentions of putting them into a photo album, but never quite gets around to it because of the time required to mount individual photographs. They remain in the drawer where they are subject to loss and damage.
There is thus a need for a storage system whereby whole sets of prints can be stored where they can be protected, and in a manner such that a set can be readily identified.
Numerous systems and devices are known for storing and protecting individual photographic prints.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,310,722 (Weinger) discloses a method for producing photographic albums. The photograph album comprises, in addition to the usual cover and backbone, a series of main leaves, and each of the main leaves supports secondary leaves. In the example shown, the secondary leaves allow the mounting of nine photographic prints upon each face. Each pocket is designed to hold a single photograph.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,146 (Holes) discloses an album having pocketed album pages. A plurality of elongate rectangular transparent strips formed of a suitable plastic are applied to one surface of the sheet and are capable of accommodating several small photographs side by side. Each of the strips has a converging, wedge-shaped lower portion which serves to grip the lower edge portion of the picture to prevent sliding and movement of the photograph in the pocket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,070 (Roberg) discloses transparent plastic film holders containing a plurality of pockets for strips of photographic film negatives or prints. The preferred embodiment provides pockets for a length of film strip or a length of negative. The film holder is constructed from two layers of transparent plastic film which are bonded or sealed together along a series of parallelspaced sealing lines. Each pocket is designed to hold a single strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,042 (Eisen et al.) discloses a register for maintaining photographs of items of property along with a description of the items in the photographs. The register includes a loose leaf binder with a loose leaf page having one section containing an inventory record which is hinged to a section containing photographs. The photographs are held in transparent pockets and each pocket receives a photograph or a slide transparency or other illustrative documentation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,319 (Mermelstein) discloses a transparent plastic storage page which includes a plurality of parallel, laterally extending, top-loading pouches for accommodating film negatives. The storage pages are formed by overlaying a pair of matching translucent or transparent sheets and fastening the sheets together by a series of sealing dots. Each pocket or pouch so formed holds a single strip of photographic negative.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,773 (Manico et al.) discloses a photographic image set which insures that negatives are retained with the positive images or prints corresponding to them. In all of the embodiments each pocket contains only one of either a strip of negative or a positive print.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 316,107 (Lockner) discloses an ornamental design for a dated holder for maintaining and displaying lesson planning cards. It appears from the design that the holder includes a plurality of pockets each holding single lesson planning card.
None of the foregoing references discloses a page having a pocket or pockets which were designed to hold a plurality of photographic prints in such fashion that only one of the prints in the stack was visible. All of the devices of the art relating to display of photographs have in common the shortcoming of requiring individually mounting or inserting each object.
Display pages are also known in arts other than the photographic art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,977,667 (Breitkreuz) discloses a page for a stamp collector's album; the page is provided with pockets or pouches for removably receiving stamps such that each stamp may be individually viewed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,003 (Shea) discloses a coupon organizer for organizing and holding coupons for shopping items; each page comprises a pair of pockets upon each side of a center piece. The center piece is a sheet of plastic to which the pockets have been heat-sealed on each side. U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,223 (Mitsuyama) discloses a card case made of two rectangular sheets of plastic produced by fusing three edges thereof; the case is provided with a hole through which a fingertip may be inserted to push a card through the open side. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,889 (Schulz) discloses a bag book made from a plurality of paper bags. Each bag forms a page of the book and provides a pocket having capacity to retain a plurality of items, none of which can be viewed without removing them from the bag.
It is an object of the invention to provide a storage system and device whereby prints from a whole roll of film can be stored at once.
It is a further object to provide a device wherein a stack of prints can be protected while still allowing one to view one of the prints in the stack and thereby identify the stack.
These and other objects and features are provided by the present invention.